Burning Down the Dance

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Back in 2003 a new sound in underground bass music broke through to the surface in the UK – but it didn’t yet have a name.

This essential BBC Radio 1 show, The New Step, hosted by J Da Flex with support from Durrty Goodz, breaks it all down:

Tell us wot you call it

Darkstep, future garage, nu-step, sublow, 8-bar, grime, urban house, dubstep… It all referred to something that came after garage went mainstream and people lost interest, as they do, when an underground culture becomes commercialized and hype.

The ‘new step’, whatever it was called, was definitely influenced by the form and structure of garage –
but was moving forward, away from everything the scene and genre had become…the champagne, the designer clothes, and even the vocals. This new step was instrumental, bass-led music fresh from deep.

Oris Jay’s take: “Dubstep is a little bit more coming from like the ragga dub things – I think that’s where that gets its sound from. It’s like, not fully breaks but it’s not fully garage – at the same time it’s just…whatever you want it to be.”

It don’t sound like garage

Both dubstep and grime would go down their separate paths over the next decade; dubstep in particular exported into something I can only describe as cringeworthy, where grime somehow retained its underground character, despite mainstream allure.

I’m a classic grime fan, still somewhat skeptical of new grime (but trying to be open) — my appreciation of dubstep stops after about 2005-6, and definitely doesn’t cross into wobbly basslines, American dubstep or ‘drop’ culture.

I think I’m lucky to have arrived to the UK after garage crashed and returned to the small clubs. Mainstream types (like co-workers) roll their eyes if I mention garage, but to me it’s still fresh as fuck.

My real love, though, is where dark garage and grime meet. In 2003 I stumbled across stairwell grime MC clashes on Soulseek, completely astounded by the music. Were they Lord of the Mic videos? I’ll never know. But no underground bass music has hit me like that since.

The New Step was produced by Rowan Collinson at Somethin’ Else for BBC Radio 1.

Now that you’ve had plenty of time to jam through the MAW and Philth mixes from this morning, you can settle in for some jungle vibes. Eveson, aka Dead Man’s Chest, has combined classic jungle with fresh cuts from his forthcoming Nautilus EP on Ingredients Records to create the Dead Man’s Mixtape.

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to post the Masters at Work Fact Mix or Philth’s Dispatch Recordings label mix, so I opted to do both today.

First up are a couple of living legends, The Masters At Work aka Kenny Dope and Louie Vega. Cruise over to the Fact Mag page to read a little bit of the MAW background in case you’ve been living under a rock for the last 30+ years.

Next up is Philth’s Dispatch Recordings label mix for July 2015 to promote his Cosmos EP. Upfront tunes and excellent mixing. As the mighty Stan Lee was frequently fond of saying…Nuff said.

No, it’s not drum & bass or house or techno or brand new or groundbreaking or amazing. It’s just Oakland-based indie/alternative rock producer Day Wave’s first single that’s blowing up everywhere. Anyway, this song is just speaking to me so it’s my tune of the day.

Stray did a hip-hop-mash-up-drum-and-bassline mix for his new Paradise EP on Exit Records. It’s only 23 minutes old and what I’ve heard so far reminds me of leftfield head trip, but I’m still working my way through it. Most definitely worth a download and listen though.

Our very own Adrian Scientia aka The Katalyst aka The Black Bull aka …well, we’ll save the last one since it isn’t family friendly…made this mixtape (literally a mixtape) way back in 1998. At the drop you’re greeted by the voice “The DJ” from The Warriors letting us know that the “Baseball Furies dropped the ball” as the 70s funk segues into a relentless, +8 techstep workout that starts with Ryme Tyme’s Payback.

Much like Adrian the tape is uncompromising, in-your-face, and (at the time) as upfront as possible. It’s hard to believe that it’s 12 years old…damn he’s old!

Fabric is giving away Ivy Lab’s Focus ahead of the their next appearance at the Critical Sound night on the 10th of July at the super club. I’m currently working on my teleporter so I can go check it out.

Rewind to a now infamous documentary on prime time BBC. A girl with hugely dilated pupils is staring into the camera and talking/shouting ten to the dozen about a new sound which ‘touches you here’ (points to her heart) ‘and touches you here too’ (points to her, er, bits!). Welcome to the club night Speed which was located, for those familiar with the geography of London, behind the Astoria on Sutton Row – near where Ghetto (itself home to such seminal clubs as Nag Nag Nag) used to be. The sound she’s talking about is one which is characterised by uplifting melodies, euphoric crescendos and choppy vocals that move hand in hand with fast flowing drum beats.

This is a sound which at its peak had record companies putting literally millions of pounds on the table in an attempt to buy into what the broadsheets and the wider musical press were hailing as being ‘the future of music’. One that was born out of a collective desire to develop a genre from darkness into the light; a fledgling scene which redefined and split a musical genre in two. A scene with so much importance that its pivotal club night Speed saw many a 90s icon (from Bjork to All Saints to the in vogue Brit Pop stars of the moment) regularly pass through its doors in search of sonic inspiration, and where the then (pre-BBC era) ‘tabloid bad boy’ Goldie chose to stage fist fights wit, amongst others, his nemesis and Bjork love-rival Tricky. One that, rather strangely considering all the optimism and hype that surrounded its inception, seems to have been all but forgotten by those writing the history books of late 20th century culture. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the sound of ‘liquid’ or ‘intelligent’ drum & bass…

As the rave sound began to diversify, the element that came to become drum and bass developed out of this world into an exclusive genre. Before long, sub-divisions within the then nascent D ‘n’ B scene began to form, with DJ and producer LTJ Bukem using this split in musical sensibility to begin developing his trademark melodic strand of the music. However, the full potential of this sound wasn’t realised until Bukem and partner in crime, Fabio, started the infamous club night Speed at the Mars Bar in 1995 that the liquid drum ‘n’ bass sound truly came into its own…

According to legendary BBC Radio1 DJ Giles Peterson, “Not since the first days I started Dj’ing at the Electric Ballroom have I had such a rush as at Speed”, while LTJ Bukem notes that Speed was a “very pivotal point” for both himself and the scene in general. It first launched on Monday nights but initially struggled to pull in the crowds. However, aided by the fact that Bjork was regularly seen hanging around the club with her fiancee Goldie (and the small matter of a switch to Thursdays), Speed soon became the place to be. i-D Magazine ran a piece on the club in March 95, and on visiting found ‘the sounds are immaculate: divine harmonies and crystalline breaks that float and massage the dancefloor… at times it looks like a scene from William Gibson’s imagination as sci-fi, skate and B-Boy fashions collide under the sounds of the next millennium’.

Amongst this diverse crowd of devotees in attendance you could also typically find everyone from Calvin Klein clad media types, to key drum and bass figures such as Dillinja, Grooverider (and the not-so-key Noel Gallagher), to what i-D identified as ‘stray hippies and tantric types taking to the floor for some wildly expressive dancing, while small groups of skinny boys lean against the speakers and solemnly nod to the rhythms’. Speaking of their visit to the club, Kruder and Dorfmeister stated “we went to Speed and it was one of those magic nights which you have maybe three times in your life.” Resident DJ Fabio soon took heed of liquid’s potential and started Speed’s ‘sister night’ Swerve at London club, Velvet Rooms, while LTJ was able to bring his particular spin on the sound to his regular ‘Progression Sessions’ night at the Ministry of Sound – no mean feat given that (fuelled by numerous CD releases and ‘superstar DJ’ residencies) this was the peak of Ministry’s reign over the prevalent dance/’superclub’ culture of the time.

The atmospheric sound championed by the likes of Bukem, Blame and Fabio at these nights was packed full of jazzy piano licks, etherial uplifting synths and deeply rooted sub-bass, which correlated perfectly with the ‘out-of-this-world’ aesthetic of the solar system used on Bukem’s Logical Progression series. The popularity of these mixed compilations brought increased exposure, including a further Progression Sessions residency at legendary London club The End (later home to Erol Alkan’s famous ‘Trash’ and the DURR night), and saw the label’s roster embarking on huge international tours.

But it didn’t last forever, and the glory days would soon be over. Hard drum and bass eventually pushed the intelligent movement aside and although people often speculate about a reincarnation of the scene via the ‘liquid funk’ sound, intelligent drum and bass is part of musical history that never truly returned. It’s all part of the circle of life in the music industry, something ‘Rip it Up and Start Again’ author and confirmed liquid D ‘n’ B fan Simon Reynolds cites as the ‘life cycle of genres’. Genres are born, they live, they die and if they’re good, they might experience a reincarnation… but always in a different, slightly altered form.

How come this sound got so incredibly close to global movement status that it could see it, but never fully taste it? It’s hard to understand how intelligent drum and bass could be internationally adored from Europe to the Americas, Asia and back again, yet barely exist fifteen years later. Sony Music reps were like crazed gamblers on the Vegas strip, literally throwing million dollar deals at it, yet amazingly, these deals were never snapped up on the basis of retaining independent integrity and the scene was eventually dealt that dreaded ‘downwards spiral’ card. Trophy nights Speed and Swerve closed their doors, along with the genre’s seminal label, Good Looking Records.